Ancient and recent Indian history of apples

And how Samuel Stokes made Himachal Pradesh a leading Indian apple-growing state

Though apple’s origins are from Central Asian countries China, Kazhakstan, and Krygyzstan, the fruit association with India is ancient.  One of the oldest Indian records of Kashmiri applies is Kalhana’s Rajatarangini from the reign of King Nara from 1000 BC that mentions the fruit. 

In his travel memoirs, the sixth century A.D. Chinese traveler Huen Tsang has listed apples as one of the fruits he saw in India during his visit.  Eight centuries later, during the fourteenth century A.D. rule of the Kashmiri king Firoz Shah Tughlaq, his administration grew many fruit tree varieties, including apples.  Mughal cuisine recipes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries list apple as one of the ingredients.

The recent history of Indian apples shows a varietal introduction by a British and an American.  Captain R C Scot of the British army introduced apples to Himachal Kull valley in 1870. Captain Scot’s introduction did not become popular among Indians as they were descendants of sour English varieties such as Newton Pippin, King of Pippin, and the Cox’s Orange Pippin.  Whereas Indians preferred their local berry-sized apples, the British used the sourer British ones to cook.  In the nineteenth century, Indian traders selling sweet apples imported them from Japan.

The American Samuel Evan Stokes arrived in India in 1904 to work at home for lepers in India through his association with the Christian Quakers. His father was a wealthy businessman who had founded the Stokes and Parish Machines elevator company. In his early years in India, as Stokes could not get the locals to accept him, he started wearing local attire and speaking the Pahadi language, making the locals more friendly.

Due to sickness from the heat and dust of the Leprosy Mission at Sabatoo (in Punjab), Stokes went to Kotgarh for recuperation.  While recovering, Stokes traveled around Kotgarh and decided to settle at Thanedar.  When Stokes’ mother, Florence Stokes, visited him at Thanedar in 1911, Mrs. Stokes bought him a two-hundred-acre tea plantation from Mrs. Bates.

He married a local Rajput, Agnes, in 1912. In the same year, he set up his Harmony Hall estate at Thanedar, where he grew apples and distributed apple seedlings among locals for their cultivation.

In 1916 during a visit to his country, Samuel Stokes heard of Missouri’s Stark Brothers Nursery patenting their Red Delicious apple.  He bought some Red Saplings saplings and planted them at his Barobgarh orchard at Thanedar in the winter of 1916.  In 1921, Stokes’ mother sent him Stark Brothers’ Golden Delicious apple seedlings as a Christmas gift.  Samuel harvested and sold the first apples from his orchard in 1926.  By

The sweet American apple varieties quickly became popular in India for their taste and rich color spurring Himachali farmers to choose apple cultivation over traditional potato and plum crops.  Himachali farmers sought advice from Samuel Stokes to grow apples and grew bountiful apple crops for profitable incomes with his inputs.  The success of the Kotgarh apple farmers spread apple cultivation to other Himachali valleys, eventually making the state the second leading Indian apple grower.

By 1932, Indian traders were no longer importing Japanese apples as the Red Delicious apples of Shimla, and the Golden Delicious apples of Kinnaur catered to local demand in the country.

Apples on handcarts at an Amritsar street

Currently, Indian apple varieties Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Mcintosh, Chaubattia Anupam, and Lal Ambri are popular among Indian consumers.  Most Indian apples are from Jammu and Kashmir, with Himachal Pradesh growing about one-eighth of Indian apple quantity.  Uttarakhand produces the third highest apple quantities in India.  Though Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur, and Tamil Nadu also grow apples, their amounts are negligible and don’t reach people across India for consumption.

Though the Chinese Fuji, New Zealander Royal Gala, American Washington, and Granny Smith are popular Indian apple imports, India also imports apples from Italy, Turkey, and Poland.

When choosing apples, look for those not mushy or have cuts or bruises.  Tasty apples have smooth and tight skin.  Indian apples are more likely to have a delightfully sweet and floral odor that you won’t find in imported apples or local ones that the growers harvested prematurely. 

Being unaware of India’s apple cultivation history or the availability of local produce, Indian consumers favor foreign apples in the twenty-first century.  Indian apple growers also face the challenge of cheaper Afghani and Iranian apples that exporters send across India’s border taking advantage of India’s free imports from Afghanistan.  India does export apples but mostly to its neighboring countries.

As an Indian apple consumer, you may be happy to hear that you can easily source fresher, juicier, and sweeter Indian apples throughout the year in any city. While retail supermarkets and gourmet food stores stock Indian-grown apples in a season, in contrast, the open market fruit stalls keep more varieties of Indian apples almost throughout the year.

Unlike the varietal names that foreign apples have, sellers refer to Indian apples either by state or place.  Hence, you are likely to find Kashmiri, Himachali, or Kinnauri apples when you ask for Indian varieties.  Indian traders now use cardboard boxes and papier-mache dividers among layers, with some even branding their apples like foreign sellers with stickers.

Indian apples retail price ranging from eighty to one hundred forty rupees a kilogram is far lesser than that of foreign apples.  Apart from their lesser price, the other benefit of Indian apples is their aroma, which you can usually find only in full ripe apples.  As a result of farmers harvesting them ripe and with improved logistics reaching pan India consumers within a few weeks, fresh Indian apples now reach buyers quickly.

The availability of cold stores has enhanced the shelf life of fresh Indian apples, which traders release from storage to even out the supply through the year.  This list of twenty Indian-grown apples shows you the diversity of shapes, sizes, colors, and origins letting you choose your pick.  After reading those foreign growers harvest unripe apples and ship those in containers having ethylene ripening gas to arrive in India as nice-looking but not great-tasting ones, you may consider patronizing Indian apples.